<title>Novel bidirectional air bearing</title>

Abstract

Fluid lubricated bearings (ball or journal) exhibit problems of life and contamination in high speed polygonal scanners, particularly at speeds above 15,000 rpm. Grooved air bearings are limited to relatively high manufacturing cost, vertical only attitude, unidirectional rotation, and they tend to ingest debris. A plain journal air bearing is described which is bidirectional, any attitude operation, is free of whirl instability and has low manufacturing cost.